Cornell University 0 @ University of Pennsylvania 41

The battle of the 0-3 of the Ivy League Rugby Championship Series 2009 was a little more one-sided this past Saturday in Philadelphia, as Penn scored all the points winning 41-0.

Both squads had been playing well of late despite their win-less records, but it's now Penn who took a step forward in the Series. Cornell got shut out for the first time this season in a game they would like to soon forget. An injury hit Cornell team arrived at Memorial Hall Field in Fairmount Park to take on UPenn. Unfortunately it turned into a game where Cornell seemed to forget how to play Ivy League caliber rugby and crashed to being down 31-0 at halftime.

The second half was better as Cornell began to make key tackles, string phases together and put UPenn on the back foot however the damage had already been done and Cornell was unable to make a comeback. It was a tough loss for the Big Red who had been flying high despite close losses in its previous games. Every team hits a low and Cornell will work hard this week in practice to get back to its normal rhythm and back to the intelligent, quick, and intense rugby it had been playing.

One of the few highlights of the game was that Cornell's Killer B's secured their first Ivy league victory of the season in a 17-7 victory over UPenn in a shortened game. Although this was an extremely disappointing loss, Cornell has a lot of potential for the future as it is a team made up of many experienced freshman and sophomore ruggers who are committed to the program and will continue to move the program in the right direction.